Dog Eats Dog

I studied the blade I now held, the apparatus of death given to me for the mission. It was long and serrated with strange markings carved into the blade. Above all else, it felt far heavier than anything like it I had ever held.

I closed my eyes for a moment as I slung the cloak around my shoulders.

“So what do I need to do?” I asked grimly.

“Their camp is guarded by many magical barriers, but that cloak will let you slip in undetected while they’re asleep.” The maid crouched and began drawing a crude diagram on the ground as she narrated the plan. I lowered myself to her level and looked at what she was making.

“The proxy is located in this tent here, relative to us.” She gestured at a square on one side of the drawing. “But the tent is specially warded. Your cloak won’t help there.”

“Can I use something else to break the warding?” I asked.

She shook her head once. “You’re not a magic user nor are you trained to deal with it. You can’t sense and respond to the magic in time so you can’t go through the door.”

She then drew a line around the camp from the dot in the dirt that represented us. The line wound around until it was at the backside of the square that was the proxy’s tent.

“I’ll slice the back of the tent,” she said. “When I do, rush in and stab her in the heart before she can form a response.”

That sounded a bit haphazard, and I stared at the dirt map as I started to form a question. But the maid responded to my thoughts before I could voice them. “She’s been learning magic, this proxy. She was summoned specifically because of her affinity for it. Mages require concentration and mental balance to cast spells, which is why you need to move fast and finish the job before she can act or speak. If you fail to kill her in the first strike, ensure she is unable to regain composure while you end it with the second.”

“She,” I echoed. “The proxy’s a woman.”

I don’t know why that mattered to me, but it felt different somehow. I knew logically it was the same for all the proxies; all of them but one would die either way, either by my hand or from losing the competition. But I was raised to never hit a girl, let alone stab one through the heart.

I slapped myself on my cheeks briskly to focus my thoughts, but the sound cracked more loudly than I expected. I glanced up, terrified I might have alerted the camp, but all remained quiet.

I took a deep breath. Killing the first proxy in his sleep had been simple compared to this. Killing someone who might be conscious and might fight back was another matter entirely.

“Follow.” The maid instructed as she moved in.

I was out of time to think. All that was left was to move.

We crept around the outside of the camp to what turned out to be the biggest tent in the encampment. As the maid approached our target, her steps became much more deliberate, even sinuous, almost as if she was flowing along with an invisible force. I froze momentarily, unsure if I needed to mimic her movements, but a stern look back at me told me otherwise.

I surmised that she was moving with the magic I couldn’t see, her footsteps silent and planned. The cloak I was given meant I didn’t have to attempt what she was doing; I was protected. It made me wonder why she wasn’t wearing a similar cloak, but my curiosity was pushed aside as she abruptly stopped and positioned herself behind the tent, a small blade in hand.

The maid looked at me and held up her hand, fingers splayed. Then she folded in her thumb. Four.

She was counting down.

With a cold burst of adrenaline washing over me, I gripped the large knife firmly as I prepared to move.

As her fingers reached zero, her knife sliced through the fabric of the tent so neatly and silently that I couldn’t see the opening at first. I pushed forward regardless, knowing she had done her job. It was now time for me to do mine.

I lunged through the fabric of the tent. It might have been my nerves or the fact that I couldn’t see the precise location of the cut, but either way, I made a grievous error: I caught my foot on the bottom of the slit and tripped. So much for my attempt at stealth.

I stumbled forward into the tent with a surprised grunt, my shoulder knocking over something large that hit the ground with a surprisingly loud thud. I put out my arms to stop myself from pitching downward, but suddenly, I landed on something soft. It shifted, startling me. I had fallen directly on top of my assassination target, waking her with a jolt.

The realization made me freeze for half a second before I surged into motion, my movements jerky with panic. I fumbled about, positioning the point of my knife where I thought her chest might be. Blood roared in my ears, and as I thrashed with the effort of setting up for the kill, a cloud moved and moonlight spilled into the tent, forcing me to get a clear look at my victim.

She was young, with a small, lithe frame. Her hair was splayed out wildly in long dark strands that surrounded the pale oval of her face. Her eyes were dark and wide with shock, but they seemed to convey a deep understanding as her lips parted slightly.

She knew why I was here, and she was readier than I was. I felt her draw in a breath.

In that moment of hesitation, I remembered what the maid had told me about mages. This proxy’s eyes made it clear that in spite of the suddenness of the situation, despite the unexpected assailant lying on top of her, she was rapidly focusing her thoughts, probably preparing to unleash some kind of magic my way.

Almost acting on instinct, I did the most uncomfortable thing I could imagine to disrupt her mental state. Just as the maid had once done to me when I awoke with a fright, I jabbed my hand into the proxy’s mouth.

She jerked, surprised. Before she had a chance to even gag, I pressed down with my other arm with all my strength, driving the long knife between her ribs and deep into her chest.

She blinked once. Her eyes seemed to be suddenly brimming with a myriad of emotions as the life ebbed out of her. I felt her small form go completely limp beneath me, and her eyelids dropped. It had happened in a matter of seconds. All that was left was silence.

I pulled my fingers from the dead girl’s mouth and wiped my hand on my thigh. My other hand still gripped the knife by the hilt, and even though it was now slick and warm with blood, I managed to pull it out and slip it into my tunic. I began to crawl back through the slit in the tent, trying to make less noise than I did on the way in, but the damage was done. I felt myself start to shake; the tremors convulsed my entire body, rattling my teeth.

With the last of my will, I pulled out the crumpled letter I had been instructed to leave at the scene, unceremoniously dropping it in the tent as my trembling hands reached for the cut seam in the back wall.

As I emerged, the maid grabbed me by the arm with an inhuman level of strength and began running, dragging me away from the camp and into the shadows.

Even as the sound of my own heartbeat in my ears deafened me, I could still hear a small commotion behind us.

I didn’t dare look back.

After running for what felt like forever, the maid jostled me to a stop and, in one smooth motion, swept the bloodied cloak off my body.

“Walk calmly for 26 minutes in that direction and you will find your camp,” she pointed to my left. “I have already ensured there are no dangers along the way.”

She was gone before I could respond.

I stood still, panting. The tremors had receded, but I still didn’t seem to have the ability to form a thought. My chest felt hollow and cold. Left with no other choice, I followed the maid’s directions and began walking. Walking. Walking. I walked until I could see a light ahead.

As I approached through the darkness, I saw something strange: movement in my camp. The campfire, which should have been banked for the night, was burning merrily. Shadows moved around it, and my already sunken heart plummeted into the abyss. For a moment, I considered running away, running anywhere else but here. But even in my almost catatonic state, I knew better than to try that. Cautiously, I stepped into the circle of light around the fire.

“Took ya long enough. We’ve been waiting up for ya,” Andra said, her back turned towards me while she fed a log to the flames.